1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to remote diagnosis systems and methods for supervising a plurality of image-forming apparatuses each located at a user side remote from a control center and which are connected with the control center via a public communication network, a data communication adapter, a wired or a wireless interface, etc. In particular, the present invention relates to remote diagnosis systems and methods which can suppress increasing a number of operators who operate a computer at a control center.
2. Discussion of the Background
A background remote diagnosis system generally supervises a plurality of image-forming apparatuses such as OA machines (Office Automation machines) each located at a user side, such as a business office, from a control center. In a background remote diagnosis system, data, for example of a total amount of consumable items, are collected from the plurality of image-forming apparatuses and are used, for example, to maintain the image-forming apparatuses.
As a maintenance, the background remote diagnosis system automatically dials, for example based on a self-recognition of its operational condition, the control center to inform the control center of any problem created in an image forming apparatus or the like. Further, a communication from the control center to each of the image-forming apparatuses is generally executed using the remote diagnosis system. This communication can send data related to a repair or an adjustment of parts to the image-forming apparatuses.
Further, a total copy count, data of which are stored in a copy counter employed in the image-forming apparatus (and which data is generally confirmed by directly calling on a user by a service person, or the like, or by making a telephone call thereto), can be automatically collected using the remote diagnosis system. This data can be used to calculate, for example, a monthly maintenance fee based on the total copy count in accordance with a maintenance contract exchanged between the user and an image-forming apparatus supplier.
Further, in such a background remote diagnosis system, an order of consumable items, such as toner, copy sheets, and so on, can be sent to the control center, and an inquiry thereto about a fatigue of an image, generation of an unusual sound, an operation know-how, and so on, can be generally made by the user using a telephone line.
The background remote diagnosis system is explained in more detail referring to FIGS. 9 and 10. FIG. 9 illustrates using a block chart a central computer sub-system 80 that constitutes a part of a background central computer system. The central computer sub-system 80 includes a plurality of user request-receiving computers 82 each operated by an operator and each having a hard disk 83 therein, and a plurality of operator telephones 81 each used by the operator.
The central computer sub-system 80 further includes a plurality of request-dealing computers 84 each operated by a staff and each provided corresponding to a kind of image forming apparatus, a plurality of telephones 85 each used by a staff, and a network 86, such as a LAN (local Area Network), that connects the user request-receiving computers 82 with the request-dealing computers 84.
A receipt of a user request and a request-dealing operation executed by the central computer sub-system 80 are each illustrated in FIG. 10 using a flow chart. The central-computer-sub system 80 accepts user requests via telephones 81 in steps S21, S23, S25, S27 from different devices. The operator may hear a user""s name, a model of the image-forming apparatus, contents of a request, a telephone number of a user, and so on. Then, in steps S22, S24, S26, S26, the operator inputs such data as user request data into his or her user request-receiving computer 82 through a keyboard or the like to store the user data in a request receiving database (hereinafter referred to as a DB) installed in the hard disk (hereinafter referred to as HDD) 83.
The operator then determines in step S29 a prescribed staff having a request-dealing computer 84 who is in charge of dealing with a request from a prescribed model of an image-forming apparatus, and then communicates the data thereto so that the request is dealt by the staff. The operator then inputs the user request data and data indicating a recipient of the user request data to store both the data in the request-receiving database of the HDD 83. For example, if a model that has called up the telephone 81 to make a request is a copier, i.e. YES in step S21, the operator inputs data in step S22 indicating the copier and data indicating a request-dealing computer 84 which may handle the request from the copier are input into the request-receiving database of HDD 83.
The user request-receiving computer 82 then sends both the data to the prescribed request-dealing computer 84 determined by the operator through the network 86 in step S29. The prescribed request-dealing computer 84 displays contents of the data on a display thereof so that the contents are confirmed by the staff when the data is received from one of the user request-receiving computers 82. The staff then deals with the request, for example, by having a service person call on the user to repair or to maintain the image-forming apparatus or by making a telephone call to give advice to the user after he or she has confirmed the contents of the requests of the user.
However, in such a background remote diagnosis system, an operator is required for each of the user request-receiving computers 82. Further, since the operator of the request-receiving computer 82 has to determine which staff is suitable to deal with a request and to send data of the request based on his or her determination thereof, a load on the operator and an operation time for the operator increases, thereby resulting in a non-quick response.
Further, the more request calls from users, the more frequent the chance of operational mistakes. This is because when the number of request calls increases, the number of request-receiving computers 82 is required to correspondingly increase, and accordingly the number of operators must also increase. Further, if the number of kinds of image-forming apparatuses to be supervised increases, a request data distribution work of the operators may become more complex. Moreover, an amount of work for the operators cannot be even dispersed, and thereby the jobs may be concentrated on a prescribed operator or operators. Further, it is basically an issue for a user that requests cannot be dealt in the priority order.
Further, the background remote diagnosis system generally functions as described below.
First, image-forming apparatuses automatically make self-calls to send data related to a problem created in the image-forming apparatus to the central computer sub-system 80 through a communication 4, e.g. a wired or wireless interface, a communication adapter, and a public communication network, when the problem is created therein. Second, the central computer sub-system 80 displays contents of the problem data on a display when received in an order of arrival thereof.
In such a background remote diagnosis system, since a problem such as a paper jam created in any of the image-forming apparatuses is informed to a central computer and contents thereof are displayed on the display of the central computer sub-system 80, an operator working at the central computer sub-system 80 may judge that the image-forming apparatus having the problem can be reset to cause the image forming apparatus to return to its initial state (hereinafter referred to as a RESET VALID status).
If the image-forming apparatus that has the problem is in the RESET VALID status, the staff makes a telephone call to the user of the image-forming apparatus to ask the user to reset a status of the image-forming apparatus to address the problem by turning its reset switch to return the image-forming apparatus to the initial status and then report a result of the reset operation. The staff can have a service person call on the user to reset a status of the image-forming apparatus having the problem. However, an operation time and a care of either the staff or the service person increases in number corresponding to an increase in the number of users.
Further, in a background image-forming apparatus, a plurality of data related to problems created in image-forming apparatuses are transmitted to the central computer sub-system 80 and displayed on a display of the designated request-dealing computer 84 in a data receiving order. Thus, the operator can do nothing without resolving the problems in the data receiving order.
To display the data of problems, the background remote diagnosis system provides a table (T1) that stores data related to problems created in image-forming apparatuses by arranging the data in a data receiving order as illustrated in FIG. 17. The data is then displayed on a display of a request-dealing computer 84 to be supervised by a staff. The data displayed on the display can be changed using a keyboard or a mouse so that the staff can search for desired data. Contents of the table (T1) can be renewed either by adding newly received data thereto or deleting data therefrom when the image-forming apparatus having the problem indicated by the data has been resolved as illustrated in FIGS. 18 and 19.
However, since problem data is displayed on the display in a data receiving order and in a same color, the below described issues may occur. First, problem data sent from a very important user or image-forming apparatus, which is to be dealt with in a precedent over other users, cannot be easily identified by the staff of the request-dealing computer 84 through the display. Second, a case in which problem data to which a priority is not to be given over others tends to increase in number.
In consideration of the-above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel remote diagnosis system that efficiently deals with, for example, a user request.
The remote diagnosis system includes a central computer system that receives user request data related to a user request and deals with the request. At least one kind of image-forming apparatus for forming images is connected to the central computer system and includes a user request data inputting device, through which user request data is input, and a data transmitting device that transmits the user request data to the central computer system.
The remote diagnosis system further includes a data communication adapting device that collects the user request data from the at least one kind of image-forming apparatus and transmits the user request data to the central computer system, an interface that interfaces the at least one kind of image-forming apparatuses with the data communication adapting device, and a public communication network that connects the data communication adapting device with the central computer system.
The central computer system further includes a plurality of request-dealing terminal computers, which each separately takes charge of a kind of image-forming apparatus to deal with the user request, and a request receiving computer that receives the user request data from the at least one kind of image-forming apparatus and automatically distributes the user request data to the prescribed request-dealing computer responsible to the user request.
The remote diagnosis system can also include a request dealing computer determining device employed in the request-receiving computer, which determines at least one prescribed request-dealing computer to which the user request data is transferred based on identification data included in the received user request data.
The remote diagnosis system can further include a request data remaining determining device that determines whether in a prescribed request-dealing computer a prescribed amount of user request data remains to be dealt with, and a user request data transfer controlling device that controls the user request data transferring device such that the user request data is transferred only when the prescribed amount of user request data does not remain in the prescribed request-dealing computer. The request-receiving computer can deal with a plurality of user request data in a prescribed priority order.
A modified remote diagnosis system includes a user request data receiving and storing device that receives a plurality of user request data and then stores the user request data in an order of a receiving time of the user request data. The modified remote diagnosis system further includes a priority-order-determining device that determines a priority order of dealing with the user requests, a displaying device that displays the user request data, and a display-controlling device that controls the displaying device such that the user request data are displayed in the priority order.
The display controlling device can further control a displaying device such that user request data are displayed in order of a user request data receiving time when a plurality of user request data having the same priority are received by a user request data receiving device. The displaying device can further display the user request data having different priority levels in different colors.
The request-dealing computer can also include a response time-setting device, through which a prescribed time period corresponding to a kind of image-forming apparatus or a user for dealing with the user request are input, and a displaying device that displays user request data in a different manner when the user request data has not been dealt with within the prescribed time period set by the response-time-setting device. The display-controlling device can give a first priority to user request data that has not yet been dealt with within a prescribed time period, and can then arrange a plurality of user request data in a prescribed priority order.
Another modified remote diagnosis system includes a central computer system that receives data related to a problem and resolves the problem. At least one kind of image-forming apparatus for forming images is connected to the central computer system and which includes a self-call data generating device that generates self-call data constituted by its own identification data and problem data, and a self-call data transmitting device that transmits the self-call data to the central computer system by its self-calling.
The modified remote diagnosis system further includes a data communication adapting device that collects the self-call data from the at least one kind of image-forming apparatus and transmits the self-call data to the central computer system, and an interface that interfaces the at least one kind of image-forming apparatus with the data communication adapting device. The modified remote diagnosis system further includes a public communication network that connects the data communication-adapting device with the central computer system.
The central computer system includes a plurality of problem resolving terminal computers which each separately takes charge of a prescribed at least one kind of image-forming apparatus to resolve problems created therein. Each of the request dealing computers may include a condition determining device that determines if the problem created in a prescribed image-forming apparatus has been resolved by a user by resetting a status of the image forming apparatus having the problem. Each of the request dealing computers further may include a reset command transmitting device that transmits a reset command to the image-forming apparatus only when the image-forming apparatus is determined as not being reset by the user.
The status-determining device disposed in the image-forming apparatus can determine a status of the image forming apparatus when the image-forming apparatus receives the reset command. A response transmitting device can be disposed in the image-forming apparatus and can transmit valid or invalid answer data to the central computer system through the interface, data communication adapting device, and data communication network depending on the status of the image-forming apparatus.
Invalid answer data can be generated when an image forming apparatus is determined to have resolved the problem or is executing an image formation, and valid answer data can be generated when an image-forming apparatus is determined to have not yet resolved the problem or is not executing an image formation. The invalid answer data can be constituted by BUSY response data that indicates that an image-forming apparatus is executing an image formation when a reset command for resetting a status of the image-forming apparatus of the problem is received during image formation of the image-forming apparatus. The reset command-transmitting device can retransmit a reset command, when the BUSY response data is not received by the central computer system. The reset command-transmitting device can further retransmit a reset command after an image-forming apparatus stops its image formation when a BUSY response is received by the central computer system.